In recent years, the trend in residential development has been towards smaller building lot sizes, which has consequently resulted in the construction of homes that are very closely spaced with respect to one another. Among the many problems that result from development of such densely packed residential neighborhoods, loss of personal privacy tends to be one of the most common complaints of homeowners. In particular, residents of these high-density developments often report experiencing a marked loss of privacy in the outdoor areas, immediately adjacent their home.
While architects may attempt to provide some degree of privacy to homeowners through careful design and layout of the interior structures of a dwelling and additionally through landscaping and carefully considered orientation of the overall dwelling structure within confines of the allotted building space, such attempts often fail to provide privacy to the homeowners once they step outside of their home. For instance, it is currently quite popular in most parts of the country to include a wooden deck structure on the rear of new homes. However, it is often the case that adjacent or neighboring deck structures are separated by only a few feet or yards due to the proximity of the neighboring dwellings. In such cases, the usefulness and overall appeal of the deck tends to be diminished in the eyes of the homeowners, as the elements of visual and acoustic privacy have been effectively eliminated.
Therefore, there is and continues to be a need for a lightweight and portable privacy screen that is of a simple design and consequently easily manufactured, which can be utilized on a typical residential deck structure.